


1, 2, 3, 4

by stardropdream



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-18
Packaged: 2017-11-29 18:42:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/690210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardropdream/pseuds/stardropdream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Outo-based fic, how Kusanagi and Yuzuriha met and became a team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1, 2, 3, 4

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LJ September 6, 2009.

  
  
If there was one thing that Kusanagi liked about the game, it was that he liked to meet all the people playing as well. It was interesting, to see what people became in this fantasy world. Though at times it didn’t do much but just make him feel old, what with all the young kids running around, or young families. He didn’t really have any one to play the game with, which was just a well. It freed him up to talk to other people, and he was friendly enough. At least, he liked to think so.   
  
He’d mostly taken to being a kiji hunter because everything else seemed a bit too boring, a bit too much like life outside of Outo. And besides, he was skilled at things of that nature, if his years on the police force in Edonis was anything to go by.   
  
He was only able to play in the game occasionally, since work and his obligations in real life were priority over leisure time, but when he did play he liked to think he was pretty good at the kiji hunting. He’d earned quite a bit of money.   
  
“Maybe I’ll buy a new pair of boots,” he mused to himself, studying the worn out footwear, scuffling it against the street to kick at a small pebble idly. He frowned in thought, as this was the most trying moment of his night—to decide whether new boots was a worthy investment or not.   
  
He heard a rustling behind him, in the alleyway. He was on guard immediately, whipping around in preparation for the monster that was fast approaching. The air seemed to hum with its magic, with its power. He felt himself tense up and he made sure the claws he used as a weapon were prepared.   
  
The kiji screeched loudly in the alleyway, and the sound reverberated off the walls, echoing in his ears. He shivered and his face steadied in determination.   
  
“Come out, then,” he called, and the next moment the kiji was thundering out of the alleyway, tentacles curling in the air and its legs tensed as it sprinted towards him. He was ready for it when it crashed into him, hands colliding with its arms and shoving it away with a grunt. The kiji skidded across the street and collapsed in a huddle with a screech, before it was back on its feet again and rushing towards him without any hesitation. He slashed at it with one hand while the other went to grab its head, lifting his leg to give it a steady kick (he really had to get new boots, he realized, as it caught on the kiji’s tooth and ripped a hole at the front).   
  
They continued on in this fashion, the kiji relentlessly charging towards Kusanagi, and Kusanagi carefully maneuvering to avoid the attacks and deliver his counters. It was a higher level of kiji he was unused to, but he was still prepared to defeat it. Things were going well, until he took a misstep and stumbled back a bit, with just enough misdirection for one of the tentacles to hit him straight across the face and send him sprawling across the pavement.   
  
The kiji screeched over him and pounced, caging him with its four legs. Kusanagi’s eyes narrowed and he made to kick at it with both feet, to forcefully shove the monster off him, but the kiji didn’t budge and instead slashed at his chest. He cringed as his clothing ripped but he managed to roll away with just enough time to avoid being seriously injured, or killed. But the kiji was undeterred and came at him with full force once again, slashing at his arms until they were pinned and unable to move.   
  
The kiji was coming down quickly, one of its tentacles aimed for his head and he was already cringing, preparing for losing the game and returning to Fairy Park.  
  
But a gun shot rang soundly somewhere behind him and the kiji recoiled with a scream. Three more gunshots followed and the kiji collapsed, tentacles twitching once before ceasing to move at all. Kusanagi stared in surprise, felt the tension in his shoulders ease away, though his heartbeat still pulsed rapidly in his chest, and looked over his shoulder towards the source of bullets.   
  
“Looked like you needed some help,” a young girl said with a wide smile, gun poised in her hand and a dog hunched near her feet, preparing to spring on the kiji should the need arise. “Hi there!”   
  
“Hello,” he said, politely, looking rather bemused.  
  
She ran towards him and in her haste nearly tripped over her own feet. “Are you okay!?”   
  
She grabbed his hand and attempted to drag him up, but he was much too large for her small body and her face puffed up in her attempts to lug him to his feet, her face turning red in frustration and exertion.   
  
He blinked up at her before he laughed. This time her face turned red from embarrassment, and she laughed a bit uneasily. He shifted, and pulled himself steadily to his feet, placing one hand on her shoulder in reassurance, careful not to put too much wait on it should the poor little thing collapse under the weight.   
  
Still smiling, he laughed again. “Thanks for that. Looks like I wasn’t prepared for that level of monster.”   
  
“No problem,” she bubbled, reclaiming some semblance of normalcy in her face color, dusting off the front of her school uniform. The dog occupied itself with smelling at Kusanagi’s pant leg and hands, eyeing the claws with eyes far too inquisitive for a normal dog.   
  
The girl leaned down and patted the dog on the head and the animal released a small yip before licking at her fingertips. She giggled and looked back up at him, eyes wide and gentle.   
  
“Inuki here smelled a kiji so we went to investigate! But then I saw you and thought that you might be having some trouble!”  
  
“Well, I’m really appreciative of it,” he said, and leaned down to pet Inuki on the head. The dog allowed this, his head tilted back in a dignified manner. He scratched him behind his ears before patting him on the head again and returning his hand to his side.   
  
“Oh!” she chirped in surprise, and clapped her hands together. “I forgot to introduce myself!” She stood up a bit straighter, still smiling just as widely as before, and lifted her hand in a wave. “Yuzuriha Nekoi, fourteen years old, at your service!”  
  
“It’s very nice to meet you.”   
  
“It’s nice to meet you, too!” she declared, face pink with happiness and the waving hand snapping to attention, in a small salute.   
  
“I’m Kusanagi Shiyuu,” he added after a pause.   
  
“Kusanagi-san,” she said with a nod. “I’ll remember it.”   
  
  
\---  
  
  
“So what’s a girl like you doing hunting kiji?” he asked as he handed over an ice cream cone, stacked with the three flavors she’d requested. She took it with a smile and took a large bite out of the top flavor. He smiled a bit and sat down beside her, shuffling his hand over Inuki’s head.   
  
“Well,” she said, eyebrows furrowing as she collected her answer and inspected her ice cream cone with utmost care. “Everything else seemed so much like every day, don’t you think? I thought it’d be fun to do something you can’t do outside.”   
  
His eyes widened a moment before he laughed and nodded. She looked up at him and he studied his own ice cream.  
  
“Is it like that for you?”  
  
“You think so?” he asked after a pause.  
  
Yuzuriha shrugged and took another bite of ice cream. “Well, if you’re a store owner, why would you come to play in Outo and own a store? Wouldn’t it be cooler to be the singing star you always wanted to be? Or to be able to jump high over buildings and hunt kiji if all you did during normal days was go to school and do homework?”   
  
“It makes sense,” he agreed.  
  
“So what do you do, Kusanagi-san?”   
  
“I work for the police force, back home.”   
  
“A police officer!” she gasped, and shifted so that she was sitting up a bit straighter, eyes wide and bright. “Amazing!”   
  
“You think so?”  
  
“It seems like it’d really suit you!” she determined with a steady nod, and he wondered how she could determine that after only knowing him for about an hour, “I bet you’re really spectacular and strong, and you help people! That’s a really admirable thing!”   
  
He laughed, loudly. “You make it sound like it’s more amazing than it actually is. I mostly just do desk work, or train the new recruits.”   
  
“But it is amazing!” she insisted, one hand curling into a fist in her earnest, and her other hand threatening to crush her ice cream cone between her determined grip. “You help people! Even if it doesn’t seem like you do much, you’re definitely helping others! And helping other people learn how to help others!”   
  
“… Hm,” he breathed out with a small sigh, and lifted a hand to pat her on the top of the head. “If you hold that ice cream much tighter, it’ll get crushed, little miss.”   
  
“Oh!” she said in surprise, turning her attention towards her abused ice cream.   
  
“So you go to school, huh?”  
  
“Yep!” she said with a laugh. She smoothed a hand over her uniform. “I guess it’s pretty obvious, huh?”   
  
“A little,” he admitted, and was surprised at how fond his voice sounded when speaking to this girl. She grinned up at him.  
  
“Hey…” she said after a pause, regarding her feet as they shuffled at the ground, kicking at a pebble (he remembered he needed to buy new boots, suddenly).   
  
“Yes?”   
  
“Do you think it’d be…it’d be okay if we saw each other again?”she asked, biting her lip as she looked up at him, almost shyly.  
  
He stared at her a moment before laughing. “Of course, missy. You don’t have to ask me something like that.”   
  
He watched her light up and felt himself laugh at her enthusiasm as they set up a place where they could meet next.   
  
  
\---  
  
  
“Kusanagi-san!” he heard her call out from behind him.  
  
He turned around and waved, watching the girl and the dog approach quickly. “Hey.”  
  
“Sorry I’m late!” she panted once she skidded to a stop in front of him, leaning over her knees and panting. “Inuki sensed a kiji!”   
  
“You’re not hurt?” he asked.  
  
“I’m fine,” she said and flexed her arms to demonstrate, grinning.   
  
“I’m glad,” he said and didn’t notice the way her face colored a bright red at that.   
  
It’d been a few weeks since their first meeting, and they’d made a point of meeting with one another at least once while they were both playing. Kusanagi liked it, mostly because the little miss was nice company and very sweet. Yuzuriha seemed to get along with everyone, which was why he had to wonder why she devoted so much attention and time to hanging around with him, but the one time he asked her, she merely shook her head and dismissed it, face bright red.   
  
“So, anyway, Kusanagi-san…” she was saying and he nodded towards her to let her know he was listening and she should continue. “I was thinking…”  
  
“Yes?” he asked when she paused again.   
  
She cleared her throat. “About the kiji, that is…”  
  
He patted her on the head. “If you have something you’d like to say, little lady, you should.”  
  
“M-mm,” she agreed with a nod, and she offered him a nervous smile. “I was wondering if it’d be okay if we became partners?”  
  
“Partners?”  
  
She nodded vigorously. “To fight kiji together! I think it’d work well. Inuki can sense them before they appear. You do more close-combat, and I do more long-distance. S-so together, we can do a lot, I think! I could cover you, you know? And that way, that way you wouldn’t have to be hurt and—”  
  
He laughed and patted her on the shoulder to silence her. “You don’t need to sell it to me, missy. I think it’s a good idea, if you really want an old guy like me as a partner.”   
  
“Of course I do!” she exclaimed and then looked away with a blush. He laughed, missing the significance of such an expression and patted the spot beside him. She sat down, face bright with her smile and her blush. “I really want to spend more time with Kusanagi-san, and this way we can look out for each other all the time, right?”   
  
“Right.”   
  
  
\---  
  
  
“So I know that you’re a police officer outside,” Yuzuriha said one day. She rubbed at her arm, sore from dodging a kiji and hitting the pavement a bit hard. “But what else do you do?”  
  
“I only have one job, little miss.”  
  
She shook her head. “I mean—how do you spend your days?”   
  
“I work most days.”  
  
“Sounds kind of boring,” she admitted.   
  
“Sometimes,” he agreed with a shrug. “But it’s not bad. It’s like you said before, isn’t it? I’m able to help people. So it’s good.”  
  
“Yeah,” she agreed with another nod. “Where do you go in your free time, though?”  
  
He shifted, thinking this over. “Mostly here.”  
  
“With me?” she asked, and he wasn’t sure what was in her expression that made it seem different from before.  
  
He smiled softly. “Yeah.”   
  
She closed her eyes a moment, face split into a wide smile, her cheeks colored in pride.  
  
“I’m glad that I get to spend so much time with Kusanagi-san,” she admitted quietly, peeking up at him through her fringe. She touched his hand, holding it a moment and squeezing, before letting go. “I like it a lot.”   
  
“And I like spending time with you, missy,” he told her. She beamed.   
  
“But what do you do when you aren’t here? Do you spend time with your friends?”   
  
“Sometimes,” he admitted and didn’t bother to tell her that his friends outside were more like acquaintances, and the majority of his free time was, indeed, spent here with her. “But we don’t have to talk about someone boring like me. What about you, missy?”   
  
She shrugged. “My friends don’t like to play this game, really. They liked it okay, but it’s usually that I’d—I like being here.” She murmured something, quietly, something he didn’t quite catch, “With you.” She cleared her throat loudly and waved her hand in dismissal. “I spend a lot of time with homework, but then I come here.”   
  
“Well it seems we’re in a similar situation, then,” he said pleasantly.   
  
“Yeah,” she agreed.   
  
There was a long silence, as they walked together through the park, Inuki lapping ahead to bite at flying butterflies and sniff at interesting players.   
  
“Hey,” Yuzuriha said after a moment.   
  
“Hm?”   
  
She stopped, looking up at him. He paused and turned towards her, hands in his pockets and one eyebrow raised.   
  
“It’s kind of expensive to come to Fairy Park all the time…” she began.   
  
“That’s true,” he said, scratching his chin. Then he shifted and rubbed the back of his hand. “I guess it’s one way to spend a paycheck, ha ha ha.”   
  
“If we… wanted to spend more time together, we could meet outside, couldn’t we?”   
  
He stopped, dropping the hand behind his head back down to his side. “In Edonis?”   
  
“Yeah,” she said, nodding. She swallowed, and offered him a wobbly smile. “I mean… I like spending time with Kusanagi-san… and the ice cream outside of Outo is much better, anyway. We could spend more time together, that way.”   
  
He lifted his hand and placed it gently on the top of her head. She tilted her head back, smiling up at him, hopeful and her eyes shining. He felt himself smile despite himself as he leaned down, so that they were looking eye to eye.   
  
“If you really want to spend so much time with a guy like me…” he started.  
  
“You always say that, Kusanagi-san,” she interrupted, and lifted her hands to touch his arm, smiling at him through her blush. “And I always say the same thing every time: I like spending time with you.” She licked her lips and weighed her words before finally saying, shyly, “… You’re important to me.”   
  
He looked surprise.  
  
“You’re… my friend,” she said and slanted her gaze away, biting at her lip. Her hold on his forearm tightened and she nodded, as if reaffirming her choice in words. “I want to get to know you better, and spend as much time with you as I can.”   
  
“Well,” he began, thinking this over. “It’d definitely save money, and we wouldn’t have to go so far to meet with one another.”   
  
“T-then it’s settled!” she declared. She checked her watch, before looking up at him shyly. “I… have to go home now. For homework.”   
  
He laughed, and dropped his hand from her head, though her hold didn’t lessen on his arm. Instead, it slunk down so that both her small hands were gripping his larger hand. He curled his fingers around hers.   
  
“I’ll see you on the outside, Kusanagi-san,” Yuzuriha said, cheeks pink but smile wide. “I look forward to it.”   
  
His expression softened. “Yeah. Me too.”


End file.
